Wait for You (wlw) (Bitter spin-off)

fourteen

Vic's pov

"Have you heard from Mei recently? We start finals week tomorrow and she hasn't replied to my calls in the past few days" Ellie asked.

"I was gonna ask you the same thing" I said. "I thought she was just busy with her finals and didn't want to disturb her"

"Aw, that's cute of you"

"El! I'm worried now. And you should be too" I complained.

"You're right. Shit, I hope she's okay. Maybe I should go to her place and check on her. Or maybe I should text her roommate, I have one of them's number. Actually, maybe if you call her she'll reply"

"Why would she reply to me and not you?" I asked, slightly confused because as much as we'd been getting closer, Mei was definitely closer to Ellie than with me.

"Because...you have something going on. And she often checks her phone to see if you texted her"

"I'm sure she doesn't do that. But whatever. I'll call her if you want, but I doubt she'll pick up if she wasn't answering your calls"

"You never know. You try and call her, let me know if she doesn't answer, because I'll actually go to her place if she doesn't"

"Fine" I said with a sigh.

"Maybe she's really just studying, but who knows. You'll let me know?"

"Sure" I reassured her. "I'll text you as soon as I know something"

"Thanks Vic" she said. "Hear from you later, then"

"Bye El" I said.

My friend was probably over worrying, given her very anxious nature, but the fact that Mei hadn't reached out to her for days was quite strange. So I tried to call her, convinced that she probably wasn't going to pick up anyway.

"Hey" I heard her voice after just a few rings.

"Hi!" I said, surprised at her actually answering.

"What's up?" she asked. She did sound quite tired, judging from her voice.

"I just wanted to check up on you" I cleared my throat. "Ellie said you haven't been replying to her calls. I figured you've just been busy with your finals, but she seemed pretty worried"

"Yeah, I've been trying to catch up on my studying. I didn't mean to worry her"

"Fair enough. So you're okay?"

"Yeah... I could be better, but I'm fine" she said, not sounding too convinced.

"Okay...Are you sure nothing happened?"

"I mean, something happened a few days ago but I'm not bothered by it anymore"

"Well, I'm here if you wanna talk about it" I said, trying not to seem too invasive.

"I...I kind of, uhm..." she mumbled, as if trying to figure out if saying what she was about to say was a good idea. "I might have slept with Sarah. You know, my ex"

"Oh" I just said, my heartbeat suddenly increasing. Out of everything she could have told me, I really wasn't expecting that.

"Could you not tell Ellie?"

"Yeah, sure..." I said, still feeling weird. "You're okay now, then?"

"I...I guess so. I felt horrible the day after. Like really horrible. I felt a huge amount of shame and guilt, even though I know it doesn't make much sense"

"That's understandable. But you shouldn't feel guilty if you both wanted it, I guess" I forced the words out of me. Was I feeling...jealous?

"I know, but our breakup was so chaotic and abrupt that it all felt too weird in hindsight. And I'm scared she'll reach out to me now, even though we both made it clear that it didn't mean anything to us"